Patent points towards touchscreen Apple MacBooks

New integrated touchscreen patent

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Apple has been granted a new integrated touchscreen patent, pointing towards the possible development of touchscreen MacBooks.

The details of the patent were unearthed by the folks over at patentlyapple – detailing plans for an integrated touchscreen relating to touch-sensing circuitry integrated into the display pixel stackup of a display.

20 new Apple patents

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a total of 20 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. this week.

In addition to a number of new Apple patents relating to its photo-centric Aperture application and a key on-chip decompression engine relating to the iPhone's A4 processor, it is this 'integrated touchscreen' tech patent that is of most interest.

The patent also mentions a number of end-user examples of devices that the tech relates to, including uses on mobile phones, media players and notebooks.

Apple has of course not commented publicly to date on any official plans for a touchscreen MacBook, but this patent is one of the most convincing examples to date that such a device must be in development somewhere in one of its Cupertino HQ's many secret labs.